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Category: Productivity

Adam Engst 3 comments

Adam Engst Joining CCATP Podcast Regularly

If you like TidBITS and Apple tech podcasts, take note: Adam Engst is now a regular contributor to Allison Sheridan’s Chit Chat Across the Pond podcast. For the inaugural episode, they talk about how to avoid missing calendar and reminder notifications and a slew of related topics.

Adam Engst 6 comments

Just Due It: Persistent Notifications for Tasks

In his continuing search for apps that don’t let you forget something because you missed a single notification, Adam Engst looks at Due, which provides persistent notifications for reminders on all your Apple devices.

Adam Engst 4 comments

In Your Face Provides Persistent Notifications for Events and Tasks

Tired of being late to meetings because you were focused on a task and missed a subtle notification in the corner of the screen? The In Your Face app takes over the entire Mac screen for its alerts, ensuring you never miss an event again.

Michael E. Cohen No comments

Experiencing Art Immersion with the Vision Pro

Using the Art Authority Museum app for the Vision Pro, you can virtually wander among many masterpieces of Western art. Michael Cohen reports on his explorations.

Adam Engst 8 comments

Slack to Stop Storing Historical Content for Free Workspaces

Slack will be reducing its data storage needs and trying to incentivize free teams to upgrade by deleting data older than a year from free workspaces. Only the last 90 days of data is visible anyway; the change affects only those who upgrade to a paid plan and would previously have recovered all old data.

Adam Engst 15 comments

Pirate Ship Reduces Shipping Cost and Complexity

If shipping packages via USPS or UPS frustrates you, check out Pirate Ship. It offers steeply discounted shipping rates, an elegant interface with many shortcuts, and bits of humor.

Adam Engst 4 comments

How to Identify Good Uses for Generative AI Chatbots and Artbots

Adam Engst explores how you can use generative AI chatbots and artbots productively by helping you identify good uses such as brainstorming, programming, summarizing lengthy PDFs, and drafting difficult email messages. He also examines the utility of AI in Internet searches.

Adam Engst 49 comments

Notes on Post-Pandemic Business Travel

Adam Engst took his first business trip in four years and found that some things have changed. He took advantage of packing and flight tracking apps, got free Wi-Fi on several flights, discovered that USB Type-A to USB-C cables are essential, learned that TSA PreCheck is easier to get, and ran across his second App Clip ever. 

Adam Engst 13 comments

Do You Use It? macOS Versioning Sees Low Awareness and Adoption

The results of our poll asking how often you use macOS’s versioning feature show that nearly three-quarters of TidBITS readers either never use versioning or don’t even know what it is. But versioning could save you from losing work—it’s worth trying.

Adam Engst 20 comments

Arc Search iPhone App Now Syncs Arc Sidebar Tabs

An update to the Arc Search app for the iPhone gives Arc users using macOS and Windows access to all their tabs and the ability to save pages from the iPhone to the Arc sidebar.

Adam Engst 4 comments

Helper Helper Streamlines Volunteer Management

If you organize events that require significant numbers of volunteers, you know how much work it is to track everything manually in a spreadsheet. A better option is a volunteer management system like Helper Helper, which Adam Engst has used for over a year.

Adam Engst 61 comments

Do You Use It? Versions

This week's Do You Use It? poll asks how often you use the macOS versioning feature, which was in the news recently due to a bug in macOS 14.4 Sonoma.

Adam Engst 18 comments

toketaWare Shuts Down, Orphaning iThoughtsX Mind-Mapping Software

Although iThoughts will no longer receive updates, the Mac, iOS, and Windows apps should continue to run, and downloads, license codes, and documentation remain available.

Adam Engst 28 comments

How to Choose a Fast External SSD for Your Mac

Howard Oakley explains what you need to know to pick an external SSD with the necessary specs to provide the maximum possible performance.

Adam Engst 16 comments

Arc Gains Instant Links, Tab Grouping, and Arc Search iPhone App

The Browser Company has been busy with its Arc Web browser, adding features to speed up searching, organize tab clutter, and more. Also new is an Arc Search app for the iPhone.